Sherilyn Fritz, Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Time: 25 May 2012, 13.00–14.00
Venue: DeGeer-salen, the Geoscience building

Dr. Sherilyn Fritz is an internationally recognized expert when it comes to reading environmental and climatic changes from lake sediments – one of the historically longest natural climate records. Her foremost interest is diatoms, a group of algae especially sensitive to environmental and climatic factors such as temperature and salinity. The composition of diatoms in lake sediments provides reconstructions of hydrology and climate far back in time. These sorts of reconstructions are what Dr. Fritz has been making in tropical parts of South America and the drier areas of North America formerly covered by large lakes during glacial periods.

Dr. Fritz will provide an overview of the current knowledge of the climate during the last 10.000 years and describe her research in that context. The climate data from natural records, the kind Dr. Fritz examines, is used to compare numerical climate models by simulations of the Earths previous climate and natural climatic variations.

The Bert Bolin Lecture on Climate Research is given annually in May to commemorate professor Bert Bolin and his pioneering work for climate research at Stockholm University and internationally. The speaker is selected among prominent scientists within climate research by the Faculty of Science.